United Nations, April 9 (IPS) – At least 326 humanitarians were recorded killed in 21 countries in 2025, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in three years to more than 1,010. We recognize, mourn and honor each of our 326 colleagues, and commit to further work in their memory.
Of the more than 1,000 deaths, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in (Democratic Republic of Congo).
This number – more than 1,000 – compared with 377 killed globally over the past three years – therefore almost tripling the death toll. This is not an accidental rise – it is a collapse of security.
These humanitarians died while distributing food, water, medicine, shelter. They killed in clearly marked convoys and on coordinated missions with direct officers. And, often, they were killed by UN member states.
Humanitarians know that we face risks. It’s the nature of our work, the places we work.
These deaths are not because we are careless about our lives. This is because the parties involved in the conflict are careless towards our lives.
So, on behalf of over a thousand fallen humanitarians and their families, we ask: Why?
Is it because the world no longer believes Security Council Resolution 2730, in which you spoke with such moral urgency about ending violence against humanitarians?
Is this because international humanitarian law, created at a similar time by a generation of wise political leaders, is no longer convenient?
Is it because it is more important to protect those who design, sell, supply and fire deadly weapons, including drones, cyber tools, artificial intelligence, than to protect us?
Is it because those who kill us do not feel any value for their actions? How many were prosecuted? How many of their leaders resigned? How many investigations did the United Nations Security Council insist on? Were you ever selective in your anger?
Or is it because member states consider these figures to be collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?
And perhaps the most frightening question: If these deaths were ‘preventable’, why were they not?
More than 110 member states have chosen to work together through a Political Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarians. Yet during various crises, humanitarians are not just being murdered.
Our actions are being banned, punished, outlawed. We are told where not to go, who not to help. We are harassed or arrested for doing our work. And we are lied to – and these are the consequences of that lie.
And, of course, when humanitarians are harmed, aid often stops. Clinics were closed, food did not arrive. In Yemen, 73 UN and dozens of NGO personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis. Women humanitarians in Afghanistan and Yemen are prevented from doing their work.
In Gaza, Israel restricts UN agencies and international NGOs. Insecurity and access barriers in Myanmar have prevented aid from reaching more than 100,000 people in a single month.
And in Ukraine, drone strikes have forced aid groups to retreat from frontline communities.
In all these cases, the death of humanitarians often results in the death of hope for the millions who rely on them. These trends, coupled with declining funding for our life-saving work, are symptoms of a chaotic, belligerent, selfish and violent world. The killing of humanitarians is part of a broader attack on the UN Charter and international humanitarian law.
International humanitarian law was never, and is not, an academic exercise. In honor of our colleagues who have died, and in solidarity with those who are now risking their lives, we ask you to act with greater conviction, consistency and courage.
I generally conclude with three questions for this Council. But repeating to you the commitments of SCR 2730: safety, integrity, accountability seems disrespectful to the more than a thousand colleagues who were killed.
We are here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to keep them.
Because if we abandon these hard-won principles, the integrity of this Council, and the laws we are here to defend, will die along with our colleagues.
IPS UN Bureau
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